Question

How do I get my daughter to use the potty?

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I'm going nuts! My daughter will not use the potty. She understands the concept, but says that she just 'doesn't feel like it.' She tells me when she's wet, she tells me when she's doing 'number two,' but she refuses to use the potty. I'm afraid I'm going to have a 5-year-old in diapers! Any suggestions?

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My son didn't want to use the potty either and we tried a few tricks like the cereal in the potty, etc. But then we got a bunch of stickers and let him put a sticker on the back of the toilet when he went. If he went #2 then he got to put two stickers on the toilet. When he filled the toilet lid with stickers he was able to pick out a toy from the store. Now my toilet has seen better days but my son is totally potty trained after about a week. It was my savoir and well worth the new "decorations" in the bathroom! :)

My DD was almost potty trained . She was doing it perfectly and then I whent into the hopital to give birth to her little sister and she regressed big time. That was 8 months ago and since she turned 3 on 11/26 I decided to get her a brand new potty chair and started from square one. I just left her alone and I didn't keep after herabout using the potty. Last night she whent into the bathroom and sat down on her new potty chair and had a BM. She was so proud of herself, becasue she did it on her own. She came running out of the bathroom carrying the little red bowl and was justsmiling from ear to ear saying "Look mommy I pooh poohed in the potty by myself, and then she whent and showed her daddy before she flushed it down the toilet. We are still working on the pee pee. As my DD says " I am working on potty". I don't put pull up on her during the day anymore. I use the traing underware by Gerber along with the plstic trainig pants, so I don't have any accident on the carpet if she has one. I do use the pull up at night, becasue she sleeps so deep at night. Once I get her to pee before bedtime she won't need them anymore. Just leave them alone. The new potty chair that I found is nice. It is the GRACO Training Rewards. It has a cushioned seat with handles on it. She loves it. I was only able to find it at Toys 'r' Us. We do not have that many choices here in Savannah. I had been using the Safe t first potty chair, but the seat was just a peice of plastic. THe GRACO one was a few dollars more, but I wish I had checked Toys R us when she was 18m and gotten this one. The best advice is Do not use pull ups during the day unless you will be away from the house over 2 hours.

Moms and Dads, I'll tell you what I did. My son will be 3 in two months and I was really starting to worry. Honestly, he did pretty good about pottying at daycare but not at home, and pooing was not good at either place. Knowing it was going to be a mess...we made the switch to big boy underwear. and everytime he pooed in his big boy underwear I would throw them away. Yes, because I didn't want to wash them out but more because he was really upset that I had to throw his Thomas or Lighting McQueen underwear in the trash. I kind of felt bad for throwing them away. But it worked. 1 week later no way does he poo in his underwear because he doesn't want me to throw them in the trash. You may all think that I am a crazy mother....but it worked for us, and I wanted to share. Mandi - mother of two boys.

Have you tried Smarties/M&Ms? I have 2 girls and we used them as rewards for using the toilet with great success. As soon as they showed signs of readiness, we talked to them about wearing big-girl underpants, how much more comfortable they are, and would they like to wear them instead of diapers. When they agreed, we switched them into underpants and each time they successfully peed/pooped they got 1(just 1!) Smartie/M&M. We had a few accidents too - the first few times we assured them it was okay and swiftly cleaned them up and reminded them to use the toilet next time. The next couple accidents, we took longer and longer to get them cleaned up and we talked about how uncomfortable the cold, wet underpants were BEFORE getting changed. The accidents became fewer and far between. My youngest has been using the toilet regularly since about 22 mths. She will be 2.5 in a few days and she only has the occasional nighttime accident. Oh, and she hasn't needed a smartie reward in months!

My son was the same way. I had a talk with him and told him that he was going to start wearing big boy pants from now on. So I just took him out of diapers all together and carryed a lot of clothes with me. We had lots of accidents but within a week he was going on the toilet with a lot of reminding on my part. That was in March now he's 3 1/2 and completly out of diapers and waking up on his own to go at night. You just have to make that decision for them sometimes. Hope this helps you, Good luck

Mothers, I noticed that my son used to tell me he's scared when he feels the poo coming out when he is sitting in the toilet. I think because he is confused of the sensation of the poo coming out but this time without the safety comfort of his nappy. So I talk to him gently and in a low voice, telling him it's OK and it's just like poo'ing in the nappy but this time he is in the big toilet and without nappy on. He would ask me for hugs and kisses. So I give him and assure him all will be fine. And talk to him gently and in a low assuring voice; instead of in a hyper and loud tone.
It seems to work, so now he happily tells us when he wants to poo. And he poo's at his own pace.

Moms who are worried ... potty-training varies in age. Just because so and so is done at 2 doesn't mean yours will be. My girls wanted to do it, and within a month or so, it was great. Even at night. know your child's schedule. Do they usually poop in the a.m., before nap, and evening? If you know it is coming, put them on the toliet. We used pull-ups ... let them pick out the design. You'll be amazed how if they want to do it, it will happen much quicker. I think the flushable wipes (Target makes great ones) are helpful in getting rumps clean in those stages, too. Just make it fun, and be around. Don't leave it up to daycare ...

I am a working Mom, so weekends were the best time for us to try. Basically, I just took off the diaper so she was bare bum and resolved to deal with any messes that might occur. Strangely enough, they didn't! Of course, there were accidents at the sitter, and once we started wearing underpants, but as long as she had nothing to stop it, she would use the toilet. She skipped the potty and wanted to sit directly on the seat.

I am also in this same situation. My daughter just turned three and was going pee in the potty on a pretty regular basis but never poo. It seems lately though she has even lost interest in going pee. We have tried rewards and the sticker charts and nothing is working. I have tried to take her out of pull ups but she just will then pee in her pants...she tells me sometimes she is a baby and likes to poo in her pants. We have a baby but he is almost 9 months old...HELP!!

My son is now 2.5yo and we are currently in the middle of potty training. A slow process that we started from early this year. We always talk to him about it. He would wee on the big toilet and in his potty. And had previously made about 4 poo's in toilet with two accidents. Then he showed no interest. So we didnt pressure him. We just carried on encouraging anyway esp because it's winter and too cold to go bare bum.
But now that spring has sprung, we started the drum roll again about two weeks ago. And so far he has been poo'ing in the potty with the exception of two days because he went to granny's place.
Basically, when he says he wants to poo, instead of letting him retreating to a secluded corner as he would normally do, I would take him to the toilet. He would sit for 15 minutes sometimes with nothing happening. Then I'd say, OK let's try again later. Then I wouldnt put any nappy on. But always reminding him that if he feels poo'ing we have to go to the toilet. And it seems to be working that way. It would take 3 sometimes even 4 tries before he would finally poo. But that's fine. As long as he is relaxed and gets the idea.
At night I still put a nappy on because I notice that his morning nappies are still heavy which means he is still not quite ready to sleep without nappies.
For me the important thing is for him to get the idea, and slowly build his confidence in carrying on with it.
I didnt want for him to go bare bum at first because I felt I will be more cross with him messing around the house. But now I am ready to face that consequence. Accidents will happen. My son and I have to both face that fact hand in hand, and with a smile :)
Good luck to all of us. We'll get there. We just have to be a little more patient.

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